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The Movie Arnold Doesn't Want You To See

Posted Thursday, Aug. 7, 2003, at 4:27 PM ET

Last year, Slate's Virginia Heffernan celebrated the 25th-anniversary re-release of Pumping Iron, the documentary about the 1975 Mr. Olympia competition. Pumping Iron is the movie* Arnold hopes California voters don't rent between now and Election Day. The film captures the Austrian Oak in all his vicious, megalomaniacal glory: Arnold bullying, tricking, and psyching out his dopey rival Lou Ferrigno. Arnold extolling his own ambitions: "I was always dreaming about very powerful people, dictators, people like Jesus, being remembered for thousands of years." (And Arnold lighting up a fat celebratory joint—don't you dare try that now, Gov. Schwarzenegger.)

Correction, Aug. 8, 2003: This introduction originally claimed Pumping Iron was Arnold's first movie. In fact, he appeared in three movies before Pumping Iron: Hercules in New York, The Long Goodbye, and Stay Hungry.

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